By Joel B. Belinan
After my first flight to India in October 1990, I must have been going back 45 to 50 times up to 1995. In those travels I was saturated with almost everything Indian, from their food (vegetarian, of course) to their festivals (they must have hundreds), various modes of transport, staying with typical Indian families, and going to their war-torn territories, Kashmir and Jammu. India is considered a sub-continent, was once a very large country before its partition at the end of the British rule when Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India were separated as two countries. Later the eastern part of Pakistan seceded in 1972 and became Bangladesh, a new country.
During those years I had been passing through India’s big southern cities like Trivandrum, Tamil Nadu, the port city of Bombay now called Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata. I also passed through almost all of the countries around India including Pakistan, Sri-Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. With all those travels, I could not help comparing the socialist dominated southern states, with the capitalist oriented ones in the northwest, and those in the northeast which were like the Southeast Asian states. It is still very clear in my mind my first flight via Trivandrum Airport (the capital city of Kerala State) from Colombo, Sri-Lanka.
That time, the Sri-Lankan civil war was still raging and the southern Indian States of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, being very close to the northern parts of Sri-Lanka, the stronghold of the Tamil Tiger rebels, were usually suspected as the main source of armaments for the rebel Tamil Tigers. Well, the Tamils of Sri Lanka are basically the cousins or brothers of the Tamils of south India. They both use the Tamil language.
The effect of the civil was such that even by just walking by the small back streets of south india, one could easily find books detailing how to make improvised bombs, and even sub-machine guns not to mention where to get all the elements to make them. But what struck me most were the very cheap consumer goods and very nice but cheap services they offered compared to the mega cities of New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Standard Hotel rooms in Trivandrum and Trichy city, if memory serves, ranged from rs.200 to rs.400 Indian Rupees (which was equal to the Philippine peso that time) and such rooms are much cleaner, tidier and more spacious than what you could get at about 3X the cost in Mumbai and Kolkata. Also, the southern cities were relatively more peaceful compared to other parts of the country. On the topography, Trivandrum was a low hilly-coastal area with an almost all-year-round lush vegetation. Trivandrum later on got developed into India’s main information hub or the country’s version of Silicon Valley.
Moving from one city to another by land was quite an experience in itself, whether by bus or train. By the way, the Indian railway system is the most extensive in Asia and the second in the world, next only to the US’. Those years when the Indian economy was still a closed one, its railway system could not be compared to those in other big countries. However, patronizing it was one of my most memorable experiences. The trains were divided into divisions for passengers: the First Class AC (air-con) with beds, the AC- Chair (without beds, and what I used to take), the Sleeper Class was with beds but no AC, and the un-reserved class that had just chairs and standing areas with no AC– very hard for foreigners due to the very hot and humid climate. Indian trains and the stations might be the most crowded in the world. They are always jampacked, especially those ferrying people within the cities. The crowds in train stations in the big cities were unimaginable. Seeing the Howrah Railway station in Kolkata, a friend from Paraguay exclaimed, “My god! The number of people here might be equal to the whole population of my country.” Paraguay had only 7 million people then. Kolkata’s population then, was around 28 million. It was the second biggest city in the world in terms of population, next only to Tokyo, Japan.
My longest train ride was from Trivandrum to Kolkata which took 55 hours. I heard that it has become faster now at 45 hours. The First Class AC, the AC Chair, and the Sleeper Class passengers were served meals all throughout the journey and, yes, you had to pre-register your meals, whether vegetarian or non-vegetarian. Then there was the 24-hour non-stop Indian music that gets irritating to foreigners after several hours.
I had a CD player with portable speakers where I loudly played country music. This attracted some foreigners who requested to come into our First Class AC cabin just to listen, to which I often agreed. In every town where the trains stopped, one could do some quick shopping at the stalls for additional food and drinks. One just had to make sure he would not to be left behind.
And, yes, I had to be always vigilant on the safety of my luggage especially in the AC-Chair class as there are more people there.
The train trips from New Delhi to Kolkata or Mumbai to Kolkata, or Mumbai to New Delhi were almost the same at 18 to 20 hours. Now the railways have world class bullet trains with speeds of about 240 kilometers per hour, greatly reducing the travel time around these cities.** (More next week)
